Mastercard, Commonwealth Bank Work for Financial Inclusion in Indonesia
Commonwealth Bank and Mastercard are working together to improve financial inclusion for Indonesian women with a focus on business owners.
This collaboration under the WISE (Women Investment Series) program will enhance formal networks to enable knowledge exchange among women-owned business; develop digital learning tools and expand the WISE App nationwide; and invest in research to understand how the companies can advance financial inclusion and equitable economic growth throughout Indonesia.
“Financial inclusion is an integral part of Mastercard’s commitment to Indonesia,” said Safdar Khan, division president, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, Mastercard. “We believe that unlocking the full potential of women business leaders to expand their companies will result in reduced income inequality while strengthening small and medium enterprises as engines of growth for the Indonesian economy.”
Women-owned businesses make up half of the small and medium enterprises in Indonesia and contribute an estimated 9.1 percent of GDP, according to the International Finance Corporation.
Early in 2017, Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK; Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority) released research showing that Indonesia’s financial literacy and inclusion indices stood at 29.66 percent and 67.82 percent, respectively. OJK called upon the financial services industry to promote and implement financial literacy and inclusion programs to achieve their target of 75 percent for the financial inclusion index by 2019.
This is the beginning of a global financial inclusion collaboration between Commonwealth Bank and Mastercard, with a view to replicate a similar model in other international markets, the companies said.
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